Task 23--Survey--CHECK!

Wahoooooo! Webolution achievement glory. I really enjoyed Webolution. I was racing to finish before CAL and made it. Yipppeeee. So. Webolution in retrospect. I liked learning about many things. I think digital audiobook downloads, file conversions, and open office are the most "potentially helpful to patrons" things to learn that I've gotten out of this. I also liked a lot of the Reader's Advisory stuff which brought up some sites I hadn't looked at before. The reminders of our resources were good, too. I wasn't a big fan of the weird, non-famous, "indie" - aka we'll charge you once we're "somebody" - music tasks, but then again, I'm not musically inclined, and they're still good to know about. I feel like I learned more than I had known before about Open Source, and Copyright...which are increasingly important. My personal favorite just to play with was Picnik. Some were silly in that I can't think of a single actually useful purpose for, like Sound Snap, but they were still fun to experiment with. I think most importantly, Webolution exposes us to tools and sites and concepts we wouldn't cross paths with ordinairily, and thats all that matters. I'm considering my tech savviness horizons broadened. I support any attempts at occasional, ongoing webolution!

Task 22--Sites We Like--CHECK!

This one totally confuses me. It should be easy-peesy, yes, but. For the billionth time, I'm sure, I don't have the Internet at home, and even when I did, I was never a big surfer. So that leaves breaks here at work to do any of that type of thing, and it never really occurs to me. I do pretty much only practical, personally beneficial tasks online I guess. I don't personally follow any especially entertaining blogs or sites. So I have very little...or I guess nothing...to share. Which is sad. I do visit the occasional cake, baking, or general cooking websites...I like All Recipes a bunch. Seasonally speaking, I think Elf Yourself is the best thing ever created. See it in action, featuring yours truly Reference staff, here. I'll warn that you may fall over laughing. And then you will have to fill out an injury report, so be careful. Anyway. I did like Nancy's tastespotting, although that linked me from blog to blog to blog, and I can see how this type of thing is totally addicting, because all of a sudden, I find myself reading about this LA librarian who is also tackling baking and this month is making one bundt cake a day for thirty days. I hope she has a lot of hungry friends. Enjoyable, though. It should be fun to see what everyone else follows. Sorry I'm boring!

Task 21--Picnik--CHECK!

Okay. Best. Webolution. Task. Ever. Picnik really is a picnic. Things I love: A) it's free, B) no registration, C) super crazy easy to use, and D is for delightful. Yes, Photoshop is blow-your-mind extensive and the master of manipulating any image in any way imaginable, but the price makes it totally out of reach for most, and there's a lot of trickery to learn. (I took a class once, for fun, and it was awesome, but I could never buy it, so probably have lost everything. ::shrugs::) Picnik is super enjoyable and perfect for everyday, ordinary touchups and other edits or fun additions. I enjoyed it a lot. If I had the Internet at home, and if I had a lot of digital photos, I would seriously consider storing/sharing/editing through this site. Picassa is cool, too. This was a fun task to play with. And now. A Picniked photo of my cat, Oliver.

Task 20--Local and Other Gov't--CHECK!

This task is a good reminder of how helpful these sites can be, and yes, I forget about the Community Directory page periodically--I tend to just type in the addresses, but this is faster and more convenient. So cool things I discovered while exploring. I went to the Mesa County site, and out of curiosity, clicked on "Community Involvement" which led to "Volunteer Opportunities", which is exciting, and Animal Services needs some people for some pretty awesome things, one of which is being a foster parent to baby animals until they're old enough to be adoptable. That sounds like a WHOLE lot of fun (who doesn't like baby animals?), but I would probably want to keep them all and not give them up again. ::sigh:: But there were other options there as well. Next, I found all the Death/Birth record stuff through the Health Department, which is good to know. I found the Assessor page, which looks easy to use, but I don't own property, boo, so couldn't assess it. I then moved on to the State of Colorado site. I use this a lot to help patrons. Obviously taxes are a big one--Residents--Taxes. Easy enough. Another one I find myself using really frequently is Employment--Licenses. It gives a list of which professions require licenses, how to obtain them, how to apply for them or renew them, so. This is really helpful. Then I went back to the Community Directory to poke around some more. I went to the Chamber's site. And I found coupons! I love a bargain and I certainly love a coupon. Under Business Services, it has postings of them--like for Dos Hombres, Partyland, a Gourmet Cheesecake place. Fun! They also have a good local business directory. So Task 20 accomplished.

Task 18--Wiki--CHECK!

I'm a fan of the wiki...so back off wiki haters. I think its wildly convenient and helfpful. Sometimes frustrating and difficult to navigate? Okay, occasionally, but I think that's usually the exception and not the rule. I'll admit I did need the hints sometimes. (I have never, ever, been asked about library plant life. ::Shrugs:: Ever.) At any rate, I got a 100. There is much, much, much more there than I have ever really had the occasion to look at, so this is a good reminder of the wealth of its content, and maybe I'll have to "page watch" some things so I stay as in the loop as possible. But yes, a helpful task over all.

Task 18--Tiny URL/Zamar--CHECK!

I'm a big fan of Tiny URL. In a lot of my virtual reference work for school, etc., we were trained/instructed to use Tiny URL in all email correspondences, since longer links would break in the messages. At any rate. So I did a Google search for banana coconut cupcakes...why not?The original URL for my selected result: http://www.nibbledish.com/people/Chengaleng/recipes/banana-coconut-cupcakes

The Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/ylfxm8y

It is really helpful for a variety of reasons, but if using, you should just be careful to explain you have shortened the link for their convenience. Even in our comp classes here, we teach people what they can glean from a URL address, and folks should understand that the REAL URL will appear in their address bar after they open it. Meanwhile I've never used the above recipe and can't verify its deliciousness.

So Zamar. Its cool. I like that there's no registering at all and that certainly saves a step. I think it would be very helpful in the PC area. Only setback I see is that mine took maybe ten minutes? to send to my email, so. Then there's the "I need my time back" whine. But still really useful. I was hoping it would take a PDF or image or something and convert it to a web address, but I couldn't figure that out. I've used Tripod for such things successfully in the past. At any rate. You can now enjoy a seasonal photo of my friend's adorable about 10 month old baby. Zamar successfully converted it from bmp and jpg and tiff and pdf and all those fun things. Again, only setback was it took a while. But he's adorable in all formats and certainly worth the time.

Task 17--Library Sites/Blogs--CHECK!

Apparently, my last post was October 13th. Geesh. Glad to be back on the Webolution tour. I enjoy this task--I'm glad all the helpful/interesting sources have been rounded up and put in one convenient spot for us to view at our leisure. Especially after library school, I knew it was important to stay aware of trends, etc., and plus, just seeing what other libraries are doing is cool and thought provoking. I already have WebJunction and Library Success on my favorites. I can only usually get to poking around them every few weeks, but they're still worth it. I liked viewing other library's blogs, other library's readers advisory stuff, and in WebJunction, I have their "IT cookbook" bookmarked too--which isn't unlike Webolution-esque stuff. One of my favorites though, just for new-sy type items is LIS news, which I didn't see on delicious. (http://www.lisnews.org/). Of course, if I hadn't webolutionized since October 13th, I don't know when the last time I had time to look through it was, but this task is a good reminder to do so!

Task 16--Open Source--CHECK!

One word to describe Open Office? Awesome. (If I did this combined webolutionizing correctly, you should be able to hear Awesome when you click on Awesome due to SoundSnap. Yay new learned technology. If I did it incorrectly, you'll probably just get weird pop up boxes. ::shrugs:: Works on my computer!) Anyway. Open Source. The definitions were helpful because my understanding was incredibly vague. I understood it meant free, and my general assumption about free stuff (i.e. creative commons and weird non-famous free music and other such tasks), is super low quality or just weird and not at all time worthy. But I didn't know all the business about the code, etc., or that Mozilla was an example...and so I'm probably behind the open source times a little. At any rate, it was great to learn and know. I downloaded Open Office and was pretty darn astounded. I think I am an open source convert. It was extremely comparable to the Microsoft products, it was crazy. Why oh why oh why would anyone ever pay the bazillion dollars Microsoft charges now? I figured it would do the basics without any bells and whistles. I expected there to be limited fonts, etc., but for the most part, it was just as darn capable and easy and professional looking. What a fantastic thing to know about. It has a lot to do with libraries...what are we about if not free and sharing? This is free and sharing. And unlike all those other free tasks I wasn't a big fan of earlier, THIS is useful and meaningful and helpful and full bodied and could really help someone out. I'm thinking of college students who can't afford Microsoft but need to do reports, or any of our patrons with the same limitations/needs. Very cool. Big fan. Thumbs up. Thanks for the photo, Creative Commons. Can I win most tasks combined into one post??

Task 15--Clipmarks--CHECK!

I thought I was going to be in love with this program/application/diddy when I read the task. I liked everything it seemed like it would do for me. And I went to the video and watched and thought it was magical and I was all impressed. Look at how easy and applicable and wowwww-e. So video, great...signing up...painless...Install...ouch. Not painless. Very difficult and weird. Restarting the computer. Going through Install Wizards. Not being able to find it. The gadget not actually on my browser. Doing it again assuming I did something wrong. Took a long time. Not intuitive. Clipping. Well. It looked all magical and easy to select exactly what you want on the video, but it wasn't really. And you can only clip like 1000 characters, which apparently isn't much of anything. So I finally "clipped" what I wanted. Hurrah. And then I tried to send it to my blog. Which...look around...clearly did not work even a little bit. (It was the first "chocolate cake" recipe result from Google, which is Hershey's.) So. Then I tried to email it to myself. Which worked, but this was the subject line: Delivery Status Notification (Failure.) I don't know why this site is calling me a failure. That's offensive. Um. The only other options are print and save. I have to say that I feel like pretty much every other alternative available is easier and more friendly than this. I would rather bookmark, copy and paste, or highlight and print a selection. And again, I don't feel the need to "share" any of it...and if I did I could delicious it or email the link or what have you to those individuals who would find it interesting. I'm not self important enough to think everyone cares about what I'm reading online. So I had high hopes. And it fell flat. Sorry Task 15.

Task 14--Downloadables--CHECK!

I'm glad this was one of our tasks, because no matter how many times we train or practice or try to become familiar with it, some patron inevitably comes up with a seemingly really simple question or issue and I can't figure it out and I feel like I look like an idiot. I usually blame the computer. But it doesn't always make me feel better. Anyway. So I hadn't really had the opportunity to play with the Media Center, so that was my goal. It happened to be loaded on the staff computer I was using, so all I had to do was create my account. Easy-fo-sheesy. Then I logged into the Media Center. One word--usable. It was intuitive, friendly, easy, even fun. It was clean and logical. The searching and browsing was really nice, you could sort by practically anything once you had a results list. I found it pretty darn delightful. I think it's very convenient that once they have that on their computer, they don't need library card numbers or to go through our site--it saves steps. I liked how visual it was, too. Finding the format you needed was easy, and so was figuring out the length, etc. If I was a bigger fan of this format, big enough to own an MP3 player, I would be in love with this. Its nice to have an account too, because now just instead of describing how functional and easy it is to patrons, I can log onto it at the info desk and show them. Think I'll win some people over that way.

Task 13 - Sound Effects/Free Stuff - CHECK!

Back to webolutionizing, yeehaw! Sound snap was a pretty good time. I thought it was rather addicting, because one sound makes you think of another, or the descriptions do, and you just keep searching and giggling, because most are comical in some way. Maybe it's just because its like 10 seconds of totally out of context noise, or maybe it's just me. I searched for "train", "cat", "screech", "laugh", "eating", "applause", and "jingle". Jingle took me to Christmas which took me to Thugs Christmas--which, don't you see what I mean?--is just funny. Also, the descriptions for most are chuckle worthy--for example, one for eating was described as "subtle wet chewing and gulping." Ew. I did not listen to that one. I've been trying to think of how this could be applicable to the library webpage...and can't come up with any stellar applications. Curious to see what other people think. The rest of the task isn't really meant for me. For the Pandora task, I discussed how I'm kind of indifferent to music, as in it doesn't particularly interest me and 9 times out of ten, I'd prefer silence. So looking for free music isn't really very exciting. I don't think I'll be "digging new artists" anytime soon. I do appreciate free things, but like all free things, I kind of assume it's free for a reason, as in the quality suffers. I have checked out Jamendo, which is...well...okay, I guess. I didn't "discover" anything magical. I can understand why a lot of our patrons could be excited about using this stuff, though.

Task 12 - NoveList - CHECK!

First of all, I'm so happy I made an easy $25! I'm easy to motivate. So NoveList. I used the Series search for "Shadow Children", the first of which I read as the Science Fiction selection for a YA class. It was pretty good, actually. But they were all listed there in order as the second result, so it worked as predicted. Always good. For the Read-a-Like, I searched for Joyce Carol Oates. If you haven't read her, you should. The categories were "Literary Fiction" and "Psychological Suspense." If We Were the Mulvaneys doesn't do anything for you, you may not have a soul. ::Shrugs:: The suggested authors were Margaret Atwood, Don DeLillo, Ruth Rendell, Barbara Vine, Chris Bohjalian, and Doris Lessing. Of them, I've read Margaret Atwood--I get the comparison but wasn't a fan, and Chris Bohjalian, who I tremendously enjoy and eagerly recommend, but don't entirely see the comparison. He's not nearly as dark. I use the Recommended Books all the time! Example--a patron came in who had just been diagnosed with something serious and was otherwise struggling with the illness and requested just funny books. To help her get through the rough patch. NoveList to the rescue. I printed out some from the "Humor" category, which was non-fiction, and then the "Fiction A-Z" had a "Just For Laughs" category. She said it was exactly what she needed. Laughter is the best medicine. Extremely helpful in that scenario. I personally use the "Award Winners" the most for my own reading purposes, mostly "Literary" or "Notable Books." Very handy. I check out their Reading Guides for Kiva. Overall, I like the product--I think it's easy to browse but clunky to search. I agree that patron's reactions are usually positive, and once you get them started browsing, it's intuitive and easy for them to use. Their book display ideas are helpful and cool. Mostly for series info I avoid this because I'm not a fan of their search, and I think a lot of the free websites we link to on our For Readers page are much easier to navigate, but thats just a personal preference.

::Day dreaming about what to buy from Best Buy::

Task 11 -- Book Reporter -- CHECK!

For a moment there, I had fallen off the Webolution bandwagon--I'm back on it now though. Wahoo. Okay, so Book Reporter. These were what I put in my notes--yes, I take notes for these webolution tasks. I wrote "Cluttered/messy/disorganized/unhelpful/commercial." I believe that sums it up mostly for me. Reading Group Guides I was familiar with and find them phenomenally helpful. I access them frequently and they help with Kiva and I like them. Those portions of their efforts I appreciate. Everything else could never have hit the world wide web and I would be the happier for it. Authors on the web was for authors, not about them, and it was confusing in it's service/purpose. Then I went to the "Author Yellowpages" and looked for Richard Russo--it very unimpressively linked to the Publisher which unimpressively linked to "Page not found." Why do I have the feeling Google would suffice better in each of these instances. Book reporter I found messy and awful, and also provided no information on Richard Russo. The Biographical Resource Center was much better. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to be a very quirky guy, so no really fun inside info...but he has a Ph. D., which I didn't know, and lives in Maine. His novels are really cool small town life stuggle scences, but comic and captivating and insightful. Empire Falls won a Pulitzer, and was made a movie? or HBO series or both. Anyway. Check him out if you haven't already, definitely worth it. Book Reporter though, definitely NOT worth anything. Yuck. I suppose the creators of the task had better luck and thus sent us on this venture.

Task #10--Research Tools--CHECK!

Cruising right along to Task 10. This is one of the tasks that came most naturally to me, so thats the good news. Me and Ebsco are pals. I really like what they've dones with their search interface recently--it is more intuitive, user friendly, and easy to use. Of all of them, I probably use Master File the most, to search most of all for...drum roll...Consumer Reports, so. Its a handy thing to know--people are always looking for those things. Most recent search request was for mattresses, I believe. It's very handy, because Consumer Reports does have a site, but it's subscription only, so letting people know they don't have to pay is fun. Biography Resource Center is pretty darn magical. I used it to look up Wassily Kansinsky, the artist, who pretty much blew color and abstract art out of the water. He was pretty fundamental in multiple movements, all described well in the articles. There were 4 "biographies"--more in depth than I expected--2 "brief biographies" and 11 "magazine and news articles." The database is clean and super simple to use. I thought it was interesting that he had an entry in Contemporary Authors, because I don't think of him as an author, although of course he was. A delightful work of his art...that I doubt is in CC, but don't sue me. I am giving him full credit. The following is a work by WASSILY KANDINSKY.

Task 9--Web Design--CHECK!

Wow! Funnest task yet! (Yes--funnest.) I have poked around these before, and used Google sites for some class assignments, which was a pretty good experience. I hadn't ever previously been subjected to the caveman painful coding web design, so I'm thankful to have escaped that. So I started originally on Google sites but I wasn't in love at all. With all my web savviness, I couldn't magically intuitively grasp how to accomplish some pretty simple tasks--like making a new page--so I moved on to Weebly. Which I liked much, much better. There was more variety to choose from as far as templates, layout options, and the drag and drop elements were much more user friendly. Formatting was sometimes kind of clunky--(I couldn't get two pictures right next to each other, which was 3 minutes of battiness before I gave up)--but for the most part, I think it was incredibly easy and actually very enjoyable. I took the Webolution opportunity to fashion a wesbite showing off my cake skills. Yay! I bet you money it'll make you at least a little bit hungry. Anyway, thanks to liberrycop for the great idea of using the experiment for something real. Adds to the fun. See it here: http://www.cakesbybetsey.weebly.com/.

Task #8 -- Creative Commons -- CHECK!

Creative Commons is a very interesting concept. Yes, I see how it can be helpful or interesting to some people. "Creative" types, I suppose. But honestly, if the created item is or could be worth anything...or is truthfully widely respectable in any way...particularly with scholarly information...it would have to be covered by copyright and thus not be represented there. So. I'm not entirely sure who it helps. I watched some of the video clips that try to claim our access to the past is restricted and off limits due to copyright law and I'm just not sure what big parts of history "they" think we're missing out on. They seem to think too much of themselves or their "mission." I just think that there are plenty of ways to use, share, send, store information and respectfully credit the creators, originators etc. within copyright. I guess my skeptical viewpoint is due mostly to my few searches. All the stuff that turned up was kind of junky and meaningless and hardly even related to the keywords. (I used the keyword "dada" to search for images on flickr--it's an anti-art movement, mostly German--and the pictures were mostly a bunch of fools dressed up as the Joker and his crew.) I understand how if you are the creator, and you're trying to get your stuff viewed or noticed, this might be a good avenue. But if you are an artist or creator--why would you want other people to manipulate your stuff? This is about 12% cool/interesting about about 88% so-so/not worthy of much attention. In my opinion. And yes, if you use any portion of this post, you must contact me for approval and credit it accordingly! :-P (Yay emoticons!)

Task 7--Social Readers Advisory--CHECK!

This was a great task! I had known about all of these sites and had previously done a project on Readers Advisory 2.0 sites for a class a while ago--and unloaded all I knew/learned on Nancy T to supplement our For Readers page of our website. Which is where you can find most (if not all?) of these. And while I do read like a crazy person, again...I don't feel the need to "social network" about what I read. I do like suggestions/recommendations though, so they're very interesting to browse. Boulder's Good Reads page seemed to me kind of bland and not very active, so I wasn't a big fan of that. Library Thing seemed clean, easy and appealing, if only a smidge "cataloging/tagging" heavy. Shelfari seemed equally simple with many of the same features. Good Reads maybe didn't seem as user friendly as the others, a smidge clunkier, but the discussions were interesting, and I like that you can explore most/all of the site before or without registering. I picked Shelfari, and it's fun to play with, but I think unless you have a pre-established group to hang out with on these sites, it gets boring fast. My favorite was LitLovers though. If I had seen it before, I forgot about it. I LOVED the quick recommendations with 3 different styles--that's really handy. Recipes and discussion Ice Breakers are very, very cool. The courses seem awesome. Thought provoking and easy, and gets you to read new things. For those of us that like free, literary challenges, I guess. I enjoyed this site the most. I don't know about an MCPLD Good Reads account. I'm a fan of our blog for that purpose for now. ::Shrugs::

Task #6 - Library Orientation/Customer Service Tutorials--CHECK!

I have so much webolving to do. Got a little behind since I was on vacation for a week. Must catch up.

I thought that these sites were extremely well done and would be really helpful for any brand new library staff member. In the OLC website, I appreciated that it provided basic underlying principles and I thought that the quizzes following each section were great review. Some were a smidge shelving heavy. I thought some of the material also seemed a little online user or technology heavy, but for the most part, it explains things well. I liked the question that was "who would you see or talk to in your library if...there was a computer problem, etc." Often just figuring out who to direct someone to or who to ask is a big hurdle. I also flipped through the Ref overview, ORE, which was helpful in mostly the same way. It gave the trainee good understanding of what to ask, what to try, how to handle that transaction.

Since I'm so far behind! the Customer Service link had changed. It took me a little Googling to find it, but it still exists and has only been moved. Also very helpful! I think few people before they start in libraries probably imagine how public service heavy all of our positions are. And something I liked about both sites was how they emphasised that everyone's mission/goal is public service, no matter your department, etc. Generally I strongly dislike using the term "Customers". I think it's very ill fitting. But at any rate. Their sections on handling difficult situations or challenging people were good strong reminders on how to stay professional and level headed. I really think that we truly provide some of the most outstanding service imaginable--in some nasty conflicts I've had or witnessed, I honestly can't imagine any employee anywhere reacting better than we do. I think we've got that part right.

I think that suffices for task Number 6. Yippee!

Task 5 - Multiple Requests - CHECK!

I'm a big, big fan/advocate of signing into the patron's/my account and doing all my requesting that way. It is a million times more convenient than typing in their/my info multiple times. I really like this feature. I dislike the Book Bag. To me, its always been flukey. Sometimes it works the way I want/expect it to, and other times it doesn't. (It loses items in the process, or doesn't request all of them, or asks you to pick locations of items, which you shouldn't have to, or lets people add non-requestable items which messes up the whole batch. More than one time I've loaded up a book bag just to have to go back, re-find items and request them individually. Not a fan.) These are great features to be aware of! Of course we all know sometimes Millennium is a better choice for volumes/parts/etc? Or sometimes it can be easier to search. A fun fact: if you're in the item's record in Millennium and you select "View" from the top menu and then "Public Display", it opens up a new window displaying that item's page in the catalog. It's handy dandy to go back and forth, confirm THATS what they want, etc.

Task 4 - Social Networking - CHECK!

I've had a MySpace account forever, started when it was popular, that is now mostly idle and wildly ignored. (I think it still says I live in Massachusetts?) I've never wished to have a FaceBook. I don't have the Internet at home and shouldn't Facebook at work. And like the MySpace, I feel as if it would probably be fun for about...um...three weeks? and then I'd get bored. I think big fans/users probably devote a lot of time to keeping profiles fresh and interesting, but again I think that takes an attention span I just don't have. I've seen some folks comment already that they're not interested in mixing business and pleasure with using these sites among coworkers, etc., and I guess I kind of feel the same way. I think its so popular, even for non-profits/businesses/politicians, etc., because it gives them a quick, free-for-once, way to connect with users/fans, etc. People like having "celebrities" as "friends", that whole feel. And a lot of people do use them for creative expression, which is cool. I think it probably is a helpful/fun/convenient way to meet new people or network. I'm dreading the Twitter task. I can feel it coming.

Task 3 - Library Webpage Hunt - CHECK!

I would like you all to know that I got a 100% on the Library Webpage Hunt. I can't prove it, because the link to my score only says that I can only take the quiz once. And isn't that a shame. First of all, kudos Nancy and Cari, because it was a tricky and helpful exercise. I couldn't quite figure out where our site explicitly says which branches do and don't have meeting rooms though--I just kind of knew that one. So I'll have to ask where it says it crystal clear for the world to know about. Also, its easy for me to forget about the Community Directory page, so thats a helpful reminder. I think thats all the webolutionizing I can take for one day? Thank goodness tomorrow's Friday too, right?

Task 2 - Pandora - CHECK!

I'm familiar with Pandora due to back of circ experiences, but otherwise this service just isn't so much for me. I'm pretty much the opposite of a music buff. I don't hate it, I just wouldn't say I enjoy it. Usually if I had to pick between music or silence, I'd pick silence. I'll listen in the car, but have a very hard time imagining just sitting and listening while at home. And if I'm trying to do something, I find it distracting. Also, I don't have the internet at home. But anyway--yes, I see how this product is cool, interactive, and exciting for most people. I think the interface is incredibly easy to use. It's awesome that you never again have to be annoyed by songs you strongly dislike. And when I entered artists/songs, it did pick other items I knew and liked, which was fun. I can see how it would be addictive. If I liked music and had the internet, I'd love this.

Task 1: Set Up Blog - CHECK!

Setting up a blog was a success! I am not a stranger to blogs. At one point I was blog-phobic, but now I have blogaholic tendencies. Go figure. In library school, professors were big fans of assigning blogs, etc., which at first I dreaded--mostly because there wasn't much to think/write about on, say, the mathematical formulations behind Google's search results. Anyway. Then I got permissions to the library's blog and went a little post crazy. At any rate, we're supposed to be introducing ourselves? So my name is Betsey. If I'm not at the Info desk or the Reference desk I'm probably in the downstairs office. I finished my MLS a month ago and had no idea what free time was or what to do with it, so that took some getting used to. I'm a vegetarian and I like all activities that take place in the kitchen, except maybe cleaning. I'm a new mama to my 6 month old kitten Oliver. I'm an amateur cake decorater. I read like crazy. I've been left slightly paranoid after watching a special on mind control last night on the History channel. It's scary stuff. And that should probably officially suffice for Task One. I wonder if I'm beating Carol?